Slats for Venetian blinds generally consist of textile strips of a more or less considerable width which are treated with plastics to give to them special features, e.g. a light-shielding effect. One end of each slat is provided with a counterweight while its other end is fitted with a connection member for joining it to a support and adjusting means mounted at the ceiling of the room. The counterweight in the form of a bar or chain may be loosely slipped into a loop of the slat or it may be a loading plate which is welded into the slat material. Contaminated slats need to be cleaned with fluid and it is necessary for the plastic material to remain on the textile material to maintain the uniform light-shielding effect. Further, during the washing operation, the slat should not be kinked. Kinks are not only unattractive, but they also might cause the formation of cracks. Because of these requirements, slats cannot be washed in a washing machine Thus, special devices have been developed for their cleaning.
The apparatus mentioned above for cleaning textile slats of Venetian blinds (DE-OS No. 30 46 733) comprises a number of stations in which the slats are prewashed, clear-washed, and flush-cleaned. The conveyer means used are conveyer roller pairs which shift the slats to the brush roller gap and removing them therefrom respectively. However, the use of conveyer roller pairs necessitates certain rigidity of the slats to ensure that they are passed to and removed from the brush roller pairs in a smooth and non-creased condition. However, with soft, flexible slats, a crease-free passage through the gaps of conveyer- and brush rollers cannot be guaranteed, because the slats are not adequately guided and held during their passage through the assembly. Besides, cleaning of the slats in the known device is insufficient since fluid is sprayed only on the upper brush roller of a pair of brush rollers, while the lower brush roller remains substantially dry so that in the three stations, only the slat top side is wetted with fluid while the underside may be simply brush-treated.
In another known cleaning device (German OS No. 32 11 214), both brush rollers of a brush roller pair are dipped into a fluid bath in the container box so that the slats traverse the fluid bath whereby the cleaning effect is improved. However, it is necessary to trail the slats through the container box. Therefore, said slats need be provided with a loop for connection of a rod-shaped holding element of the conveyer means. Slats incorporating a welded loading plate are not provided with such a loop and therefore, may not be conveyed through said means. Further, because of the lack of guides, the smooth passage of soft slats through the brush roller pair is not assured and problems may arise.